Where Science and Faith Meet

Stephen Meyer is a scientific philosopher argues that the Intelligent Design is therefore true and that the Theory of Evolution of Charles Darwin lacks reason and reality. He is an expert on the philosophy of science with a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge. He is also a geophysicist in his previous career. He has authored many essays and books regarding the Intelligent Design and the Philosophy of Science.

Stephen Meyer is a front runner in defending the creationism which Christians believe in. But unlike most Christian apologists or theists, he has a wide background in scientific study and philosophy. He is also the director for the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute.

Darwin’s Doubt and The Cambrian Explosion

What is Darwin’s Doubt all about? In a nutshell, Darwin’s doubt is a book that supports the theory and philosophy of the Intellegent Design. Intellegent design states that our universe, this planet and all its beings are not just mere coincidences but are designed by a Great Creator. It also uses the argument related to the Cambrian Explosion, which is an evolutionary phenomenon known to have puzzled even Charles Darwin.

The Cambrian Explosion is basically an explosion of sudden and fast evolution which is contrary to the regular thought of evolution: that things evolve gradually.This phenomenon was discovered by railmakers in the early 19th century when they dug lands in order to build the first Canadian trancontinental rail system.

One of the geologists of the said project saw that the ridges of Mt. Stephen showed evidences of fossilized marine animals. But unlike slow evolution, these marine creatures evolved in an unbelievable speed.

And so due to the news of this well preserved site of the remains of fossilized animals, a famous paleontologist name Dr. Charles Doolittle Walcott came to Mt. Stephen. He then named the site as the Burgess Shale.

The Burgess Shale contained execionally preserved marine animals that even had soft tissue. They showed a fast evolutionary process rather than the slow and gradual one taught by Charles Darwin and other Evolution Theorists. Darwin stated in his book the Origin of Species that for an organism such as a bird or a fish to evolve from it’s previous anscestor to its to current state would take millions of years to do so.

Basically the Cambrian Explosion phenomenon contradicts what most evolutionary theorist beliefs; mainly Charles Darwin’s Orgin of Species. Stephen Meyer uses philosophy and his careful examination of paleontolic evidences to prove that that the Cambrian Explosion can therefore deminish any doubths about Creationism and Intellegent Design.

In his book, he careful analysises the threatises of Darwin. He sites how species suddenly evolved in an explainable speed. Such explosion of life is not possible without any Devine Intervention.

Stephen Meyer: A Philosopher of Science

Stephen Meyer, unlike many Creationists, has studied both science and philosophy. He examines scientific literature, past evidences, experimentations done and gathers data in order to logically examine them to come up with a coherent argument. As a philosoper of science, his main task to carefully evaluate data from scientists and check if they are plausible. He uses both evidence and logic to come up with his theories and writings.

Stephen Meyer looked into paleontology and carefully examined the texts relating the Cambrian Explosion. His book also contains about sixty pages of scientific notes, biography and literature to help his readers understand the scientific concepts. He also looked into life science, biology and bioformatics.

In the book Darwin’s Doubt, Meyer enlisted the help of two paleontologists and two biologists who were also advocates fo the Intellegent Design movement.

A Sneakpeak of Darwin’s Doubt

When Darwin’s Doubt debuted, it became New York Times’s #7 Bestsellig Book. It also reached the #1 status in the Barnes and Nobles list of books.

Because of the well researched data and great arguments made by Meyer, many attacked him. False reviews circulated online, but this did nto deter the book from enlightening others.

Three Major Parts of the Book

Part 1 – The first one is the Mystery of the Missing Fossils. This part tackles the history of major fossil bed areas in various places. This section also examines the Pre-Cambrian, Cambrian and Post-Cambrian paleontology. Mystery of the Missing Fossils analyses different evidences from the said periods of time.

Part 2– The second part is the How to Build an Animal. This guide examines how animals came to be in the Cambrian period and what accounted for their fast evolution.

Part 3– The last part is the After Darwin, What? This part tackles the comparison between the arguments of the Evolutionists vs the arguments of the Intellegent Design.

All in all, the book was an eye opening experience that anyone who is interested on how we came to be can appreciate.

Many times in our lives we ask if God truly exists. We marvel how can a Great Being be real if I cannot see or feel him? Many people doubt God’s existence. And some even deny that he even exists. But St. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic Church scholar and expert proved God’s existence not by myths but by the power of philosophy.

Who is St. Thomas?

St. Thomas is one of the greatest teachers and philosophers known in the Western World. He was a champion of God and the Catholic faith. At the time when Gentiles and non-believers expanded, St. Thomas proved the existence of God; not by dogma but by logic and reasoning.

St. Thomas Aquinas was born around the year 1225 in Roccasecca, Italy. St. Thomas was one of the eight children of a wealthy family. His father was the count of Aquino, named Landulph and his mother was the countess of Teano named Theodora. His lineage dates back to the great families of Emperor Henry I and Henry VI. Although they were from the emperor’s line, their family were not of high nobility but a still had considerable riches.

When his mother was pregnant with him, a hermit told her that Thomas would one day be a holy man and would enter the Order of Friars. The hermit said that Thomas will be a scholar and would achieve great heights in both wisdom and holiness.

At the age of five, Thomas was sent to the Abbey in Monte Cassino where he stayed at until he was 13. There he learned the scriptures. He was often seen as a pleasant and intuitive boy who often asked “What is God?”.

Growth in Spirit

From the age 13 to 18, St. Thomas attended a Benedictine House in Naples. There he learned about philosophy and wanted to move towards the life of spiritual service rather being sheltered all the time in an Abbey.

In 1239, he started going to the University of Naples. In 1243, he joined the Dominican monks and received his habit in 1244. His family did not agree with this decision. They kidnapped Thomas and imprisoned him in San Giovanni. He did not change his mind about his Dominican beliefs and was released in 1245. From there he continued to learn with the Dominicans until 1252. He was ordained as a priest in 1250.

Because Thomas was always quiet and did not speak much, many of his peers thought that he was slow and stupid. But his teacher, St. Albertus Magnus saw his thesis and proclaimed Thomas to be one of his brightest students.

Psychic, Psyche and the Soul

St Thomas Aquinas recognised that all living organisms have a soul or ‘anima’ although he felt that only human souls go on to be immortal. For those interested in metaphysics and psychic powers as well as the wellbeing of the psychological whole, Aquinas has useful things to offer us. Much of what he says about psychic powers can be related to what Buddha said about Abijna or the six psychic/higher powers. Whilst the Bible sometimes gives us conflicting messages about whether or not it is acceptable to make use of psychic powers, my feeling is that if it is done with a pure heart and with God in mind, that it is ok, so if you are looking to get a good psychic reading then you might want to try this oranum review by a buddhist.

Another interesting point about Thomas Aquinas is that unlike Descartes and other scholars, he tries to avoid the dualism of seeing the soul and body as separate and almost independent entities. And yet at the same time he realises that they are not the same but instead intricately intwined. Both require each other but yet the intellect is not the soul alone:

“because it is one and the same man who is conscious both that he understands and that he senses. But one cannot sense without a body, and therefore the body must be some part of man. ” (Summa Theologiae Ia 76, 1).

In this way Aquinas seems very ahead of his time, as this is the kind of position that many peoples of spirituality currently reside comfortably within today.

Proving God Logically

In those years, many people believed that God and his existence was difficult to explain in logical way. But Thomas was able to prove God through his writing such as the Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles. He proved God was existent by writing his Five Ways:

1. The unmoved mover;

2. The first cause;

3. The argument from contingency;

4. The argument from degree;

5. The teleological argument (“argument from design”).

Through this five ways, one can logically confer that God does exist.

1. The Unmoved Mover– St. Thomas argues that God exists because all motion comes from a source of motion. The world is in motion and all the entities in space are also in motion. So if things move, then someone moved them. This is the source of all movement. And this source is the Unmoved Mover, which can refer to as God.

2. The First Cause – All things come from something. The egg comes from the chicken but the chicken also comes from the egg. And if everything comes from something, then it means that there is an original source of everything. This is the Main Source. The Main Source of all things is then therefore God.

3. The Argument of Contingency– The argument of contingency means that everything is contingent or everything has an end and can die or perish. But in the case that all things can die or disappear, why is that things do still exist now? It all means that there is something that does is not perishable; there is something infinite and in-contingent. This Incontingent Matter helps the cycle of continuity of all matter. This is the One who Never dies but rather ensures everything continues.

4. The Argument of Degree– The argument of degree is also known as the argument of perfection. It states that we compare the perfection, goodness, beauty, kindness of things. There is always something better than one thing. Like if you see a beautiful woman there is always someone who looks better than her. This only means that if there is always something more beautiful than something then there is a source to which we can compare all greatness to. It means that there is this one Perfect Being that is the source of all that is great and beautiful.

5. The Teleological Argument or the Argument of Non-sentient things– This arguments states that things who do not have reasoning like trees, rocks, water and all other things in this world that do not think behave in regular way. They cannot think but they can have predictable behavior. Thus if their behavior are all predictable, then it means that there is someone who predicts their movement. There is God to govern such things.

God Exists

St. Thomas was a champion of the Catholic Church. He wanted people to stay with God when modern science and philosophy tells them that God does not exist. Through his teachings, he was able to help the human mind see the truth: GOD DOES EXIST

Galileo Galilei was a forward thinking scientist that defied the church and changed history and science forever. He is known now as the Father of Observational Astronomy, The Father of Modern Physics and The Father of Science.

Galileo Galilei was well know for his theory and discovery of heliocentrism and his strong beliefs regarding the works of Copernicus lead to his incarceration and excommunication. He was declared by the church as heretic twice and was sentenced to a life of imprisonment.

Whilst I am a Christian I do like to study other world religions as well for a deeper understanding of God, Science and the world around us, and if you want to do this too a good place to start is this website TeachingsOfTheBuddha.com

Who is Galileo?

Galileo was a scientist and mathematician born in the 16th century in Pisa, Italy. He was born on February 15, 1564. He was the first child of Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati-Galilei. His father was a great lutenist, composer and music theorist and musical scientist. Vincenzo taught Galileo music as well involved him in various studies and experimentation on tone, rhythm and pitch. And through his father’s mentorship Galileo appreciated measurements and experimentation.

At the age of 17, Galileo attended University of Pisa to become a doctor and study medicine. However with his studies, he became fascinated with the maths and philosophy. Although his father was against it, Galileo devoted himself in learning math and Aristotelian philosophy.

However in the year 1585, he left school without finishing his degree. He then started teaching private math lessons. During this time, he began studying kinetics and motion. He wrote a book called The Little Balance.

Galileo later applied to become the chairman of mathematics for the University of Bologna but was not accepted. He then discovered the theorem on the center of gravity and applied as the chair of the University of Pisa and was accepted. Later on, he moved to the University of Padua since he was no longer renewed at the University of Pisa because of his views against Aristotelian gravitational theories.

Because of his father’s death, Galileo was tasked to take care of his family and then acquired financial concerns. He was also unable to marry due to monetary reasons. He had a long time relationship with Marina Gamba. They had two daughters and a son.

He continued to study physics and gravity.

Reinventing the Telescope

In the year 1609, Galileo Galilei learned about the telescope. He then sought to remake it by using pieces of glass from an eyeglasses store. So in August 1609, Galileo was able to make an eight-powered telescope after his previous attempts of making just a three powered one. This telescope he presented to Senate of Venetia.

After a few months of hard work, Galileo was able to make a twenty powered telescope in the year 1609. In the year 1610, he discovered the four moons of Jupiter. He named the moons after the Medici family, one of his patrons and students in the past.

The Medici’s named as their official mathematician and philosopher.

Later on he studied Jupiter and it’s movement as well as it’s moons. He also looked into Saturn, Venus and Mercury. He watched stars and noted the movements of these heavenly bodies and then concluded that the geocentric theory of Aristotle to be false. He realized that the heliocentric theory of Copernicus was indeed true.

The Inquisition of Galileo

Due to Galileo’s conversion to the Copernican theory of heliocentricity, he amassed enemies. At one time he wrote a letter to his former student Benedetto Castell. A falsified copy of the said letter came into the laps of priests and bishops of Rome.

This caused much stirrings in the higher ranks of the Church. In another letter to the Duchess Christina, Galileo has said that he never meant to reinterpret the Bible and the scriptures and that he only wanted to discover the universe and science. However a priest wrote about the Copernican heliocentric theory and said that it was not against the Bible. This man was Paolo Antonio Foscarini.

Paolo Antonio Foscarini was later on tried and found by the church guilty of heresy causing more anger from the church to anyone who dares to prove the Copernican theory true. Scientists of that time who believed in heliocentrism or said anything against geocentrism was cast as a herectic, this included Galileo.

Galileo was then forced to renounce his findings. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine ordered Galileo to deny as well as not write about the heliocentric solar system. So he decided to go mum about it. However in the year 1623, Galileo finally decided to write a discourse entitled The Assayer. Here he held his heliocentric beliefs and he tried to state that he does not intend to reject the teachings of the church, but rather prove and explain them.

Later on his patron, the Maffeo Cardinal Barberini became a pope. He was known as Pope Urban VIII. Galileo dedicated his book The Assayer to him and went to visit the pope. He told the pope proofs of the Earth’s movements by siting the tides and their movements.

On the other hand, the pope did not dismiss him but rather told him that he will allow Galileo to publish his work as long as he does state that heliocentrism is just a theory and is not yet a known truth. He then released the book Dialogo Sopra.

Dialogo Sopra and God

Many people believe that Galileo was against God and that he wanted science to be supreme over what seemed to be an archaic book known as the Bible. However, Galileo never did intend to go against God in his book he wrote:

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.

Galileo only meant to prove God’s supremacy. He also stated that God can make the universe as He wishes. He never meant to reject the power of God, he only wanted to disprove an outdated research and findings of an earlier philosopher and astronomer, Aristotle.

But many of the church leaders where against it. So Pope Urban VIII decided to try Galileo and examine his works. In 1633, he was made to stand in the inquisition and was found guilty. He was then given the punishment of life imprisonment.

In the beginning he stayed in his original home but was later moved into a nice estate in Arcerti. He was made to have house arrest. During this time he continued to study physics. He also wrote a book which he published in the Netherlands. This book was mainly focused on math and kinetics.

In January 8, 1642, Galileo Galilei passed away.

The Truth About Galileo

Many people believe that Galileo was an atheist and thus a natural enemy of the Church. But he was not. He was a devout Catholic who both believed in Christian and a Scientist.

Because of his groundbreaking studies about space, physics, gravity and the maths, Galileo was named the Father of Modern Science. He was able to change the age old belief about geocentrism. He dared to show the truth.

But in truth, Galileo never meant to destroy the Church and make it look bad. He only wanted to show how great the works of God is by enlightening others about the truth of the Universe. In the writings of Melissa Cain Travis about Galileo, we see that he was not a man who wanted to break down the church.

Through careful examination of his life and his work, we can see that he was a man of God. But he was also a man of science.